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Welcome to your Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog with me, Jim Fusco! I just reached 100 subscribers and I know it’ll only grow faster from here! I hope you’ll tell your friends about the music blog, too.

Anyway, now to today’s cover song video. Today, I give you another in our series of Beatles cover songs that I’ve loved for a long time, “Things We Said Today”.

Paul McCartney said that this song was about a girlfriend of his he met while in another country. They had such a great time together and made all those crazy young promises of “always waiting for you”, etc. So, he’s singing about remembering the things they said to each other while feeling alone and far away. What a great, heartfelt idea for a song!

One of the things I’ve always liked about “Things We Said Today” is the cool strumming pattern of the A-minor chord that starts the song. For a song about such a melancholy feeling, the opening chords are so harsh. Of course, that harsh feeling comes up again in the bridge of the song, where Paul gets a bit rougher with his singing style. I think the middle-8 is one of the best that Paul McCartney ever wrote. He flawlessly transitions his voice from sweet and mellow to biting. It’s very impressive.

I guess the duality in “Things We Said Today” between the verses and middle sections is reflected in the lyrics of the song. On the surface, you’ll notice that Paul is first saying how they’ve promised to “be the only one” for each other. But, if you read into it a little bit, you’ll hear what he really means. He knew, because of the distance between him and the girl he’s talking about, that the promises of “being the only one” were empty and could never be true. He knew it was only a passing fling. In the middle section, he says, “And though we may be blind, love is here to stay.” He’s saying that in a new relationship like that, people tend to overlook obvious challenges like, you know, living thousands of miles away from each other. And, in the minds of these naive folks that are newly in love, it’ll stay great forever! Those of us who have been through that situation know the real eventual outcome.

On a funnier note, I had to relocate to my room for this song (good thing I have a Laptop!) because my parakeets would not stop chattering downstairs! But, I’m glad they’re getting along, even if it is to the detriment of my acoustic cover song videos.

I hope you enjoy today’s Beatles acoustic video- I’ll catch you on Sunday with an all-new Beach Boys song!

We have a NEW album out called Homestead’s Revenge (by Masters of the Universe- the band I’m in). You can buy the high quality mp3s or the CD version. Here’s the web address: http://jimfusco.com/albums.html. PLEASE check it out and let me know what you think! I hope you all enjoy today’s Session, and REALLY enjoy the new album- it’s two years in the making!

I swear we didn’t plan this… I’m sure by now, if you’re a rock music fan, you’ve heard about the Beatles Rock Band game that’s coming out tomorrow, Wednesday, 9/9/09. Everyone in the gaming world is excited about this new release, and you better believe I am, too! You see, it’s very rare we get an official Beatles release (any more “interview” discs floating around?), and it’s great to see the Beatles music brought to a whole new generation of youngsters that are sure to fall in love with it just like the rest of us did. I’m excited about the new Rock Band video game for Playstation 3, but I’m especially excited about the entire Beatles catalog (including the collection of singles in Past Masters Volumes 1 and 2) being remastered and re-released. I’ve wanted the Beatles albums remastered for as long as I remember hearing them. The original tape transfers sound so tinny- the discs they were selling on shelves all the way up until today were made in 1986 and have just been duplicates. Go ahead- check your CDs- they all say 1986 on them! That’s back in the time where they had to tell you the “great sound quality and fidelity” you get with CDs… Anyway, as I am happy that they’ve remastered the original two-track masters of the Beatles albums, I’m a bit disappointed in two things:

First, they’re not remixed. Not to say that they weren’t mixed great for the time, especially because (next to Brian Wilson, in my personal opinion) George Martin was the best producer ever. But, now you listen to these songs and many leave a lot to be desired. Imagine if you heard some of the songs on “HELP!” without all the vocals to the right channel and the music in the left. Imagine if the drums in the early records were panned more towards center so they don’t cut through the mix (especially the tambourine). As tacky as the “Love” CD from Cirque de Soleil is, it’s still pretty cool to hear the songs in such lush stereo, as opposed to the duophonic sound that they achieved before the late 60s.

And second, there are no bonus tracks. My father is quick to point out some key missing tracks that were left off the Anthologies (“The extended version of “Dig It”!”, he always yells) and we’re left with nothing more than the albums that we’ve already bought on LP, 8-track, cassette, and original CD.

So, there’s Beatlemania in the air and I love it. It’s been WAY too long since the fervor of the Anthology series and it feels great to say, “Oh yeah, well I’m only 25 and I’ve been a fan ALL 25 years!”

Which brings me to tonight’s Beatles cover song video. Let me tell you, folks- prepare to be blown away. Along with my mystery guest Steve and other off-camera guest Chris (not Moore) (from my new cover band, the Traveling Acai Berries, also featuring Bill, who couldn’t be at the session), we play a completely effortless version of “Two of Us” from the “Let It Be” album. Chris appears on-camera in the video I’ll be posting next week, but Steve, by request of his college-age daughter who would commit social suicide if her friends found out her father was on YouTube singing Beatles songs with a 25 year old , decided that he would just show his guitar skills on camera. Actually, that’s Steve singing with me on this one, too.

And that way I described the performance: effortless. That’s what makes it different from many of my past collaborations. Whether it be getting the chords right, remembering the words, or remembering harmony parts, past duets have always been troublesome. But Steve, Chris, and I play this like we’ve been playing for years, and that’s what I love about this video. You can barely hear Chris in this video- he’s playing mandolin away from the microphone, but at times, especially late in the chorus, you can hear him plucking away. His sight reading was impressive. On next week’s video, you can definitely hear him, though. Steve’s playing is great, as he took the time to learn all those parts I don’t on guitar, which is just so great knowing that I can just sing and play rhythm. Steve reminds me a lot of my father- not only in his love for the Beatles music, but in how he can sing harmony parts without having to teach him every note. Somehow, he just knows. And that’s where this familiarity comes from- it really shows through in the video.

I sincerely hope you enjoy tonight’s performance- one’s that’s been in the works for months now. It was a lot of fun and I hope they’ll want to do more, especially when they see all the good reviews we’ll get! I’ll be back next week and hopefully I’ll be enjoying the new Beatles Rock Band game, too. I’m going to wait until Christmas for the Beatles remastered albums, though- in stereo, of course. And don’t even get me started on the new “mono” box set… Until next week!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and welcome to this special holiday edition of the Laptop Sessions music blog with me, Jim Fusco! Tonight, I bring you a great Beatles cover song in “I Need You”, written by George Harrison.

I’ve always been a huge fan of George Harrison’s songs, as I’m sure you know by now. To me, he helped make Paul McCartney and John Lennon better as songwriters. Why? Because they were given a different perspective on each album. I honestly wish the songwriting was more balanced throughout the Beatles recordings.

Tonight’s Beatles cover song is the first of a “Twin Spin” of sorts. Two weeks from now, I’ll be debuting another song with the same name: “I Need You” by the bad America. Gerry Beckley, the writer of that song, is a huge Beatles fan, and I think there are some definite similarities between the two songs. The endings of both songs sound very similar to me, and I think it was done purposefully by America.

“I Need You” is one of the earlier songs George Harrison wrote for the Beatles. In the beginning, you could tell that George really was the “quiet Beatle”. He wrote songs with a self-lamenting tone to them. Another example is “Don’t Bother Me”.

This acoustic cover song music video took me only one take. That happens when I both love the song…and know all the lyrics.

I’m not going to get all gushy and emotional about Thanksgiving here on the music blog, but I will say that I hope you have a great day. It’s honestly my favorite day of the year- you have everything to look forward to!

And, I hope you enjoy tonight’s acoustic Beatles cover song music video. Oh, and as a quick update regarding my re album, “Those Around Us”, I have the final album art and it looks AMAZING! I can’t wait to debut it to the world. I hope to see you next week for part two of my “I Need You” cover song video mini-series!

Hey there! First self-written blog on the laptopsessions site, and I’m excited to be learning all the ins-and-outs of the process. (Not really EXCITED, cuz it’s lots of work, but the end result is exciting!) So I was in kind of a bind because 3 days comes and goes so fast, and suddenly I was left to do another cover. And anyone who knows me knows I used to HATE doing cover songs, so I have zero in my prelearned catalogue. However, I figured out this Beatles cover song, my second favorite Beatles tune of all time (The first being “Something”, which I will do in a future session on the Uke in tribute to George Harrison!) I’ve always loved “In My Life”, Ringo’s drums are great… they sound like feet shuffling during a slow dance, and I think anyone who gives this song a good listen will have a slide-show of their whole life playing in their head.

As I sing it to myself pictures of faces I dont speak to anymore still pop up, (“some are dead and some are living”- it’s true!), and loves that have come and gone. I dont know exactly what this song means to me, I guess just because there’s no current love to sing it to makes me believe it’s sung to my soul… and whoever out there shares it with me, and the Big Man upstairs who is responsible for it all. (No, not my father upstairs! haha!) Not bad for a 4 am recording on a binge of candy and diet Dr. Thunder. Enjoy!